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MAG

Score: 7.5 / 10

Those who were fans of the SOCOM series may
have been surprised to see Zipper Interactive venturing into new
territory with MAG: a first person massive online multiplayer shooter
set in the future featuring up to 256 players online on a single map,
which is astounding considering what other games have offered for the
Playstation 3.

Believe it or not, MAG actually has a
storyline. Based around three different military contractors fighting
for supremacy these factions are S.V.E.R, Valor Company and Raven, each
possessing unique uniforms and weapons. The way that MAG handles the
factions is where the first fault with the game lies. You can have only
one character per Playstation account, which means that once you want to
try another faction, you are forced to delete your existing character or
max out your characters

Prior to jumping online you can go through
the tutorials which teach you the basic controls. The tutorials do a
decent job of preparing you for what lies ahead online, but I still
found myself asking for help from my teammates to carry out specific
actions.

While MAG is set in the future, most of the
weapons and vehicles

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are pretty similar to whatís seen in games
like Modern Warfare 2. You have your standard assault rifles, pistols,
machine guns, grenades as well as special weapons that squad commanders
can use such as mortar strikes.

Joining a game is done by choosing your
game type and joining a queue. There is a fairly large online community
so finding a game is usually not a problem. However, there were times
when I had to wait for a couple of minutes in a queue prior to joining a
game. When this was the case I found that quitting and re-joining a
queue seemed to speed things up.

There are a total of four game modes:
Deathmatch, Sabotage, Acquisition, and Domination. Sabotage sees one
team defending a series of positions, while the other team attempts to
take over these locations and destroy a final position to win the game.
Acquisition is similar to SOCOMís hostage rescue mode whereby one team
has to break into the enemyís base and steal a vehicle and transport it
back to their spawn point. Domination puts team in competition for
control of a series of points throughout a map. Deathmatch is standard,
but where MAG truly shines is in the other multiplayer modes as the
emphasis on teamwork is truly evident in the other game types.

The teams in MAG are broken up into squads.
Each squad consists of 8 players, with a squad leader. The squad leader
has the ability to call in mortar strikes, poison gas strikes or air
strikes. Itís important to have someone who is qualified as squad
leader, otherwise your squad will struggle to complete its objective. If
you feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities of a squad leader, it is
fairly easy to pass on leader duties to someone else in the squad and
there is always the option of voting someone out of the match. The key
to survival in MAG is sticking with your squad and communicating
effectively with one another. Not having a mic while playing online can
certainly put a damper on your online experience.

The enjoyment of the experience depends
heavily on the people you play with. Teamwork is essential in MAG and
games where you have good coordination with your teammates prove to be
the most enjoyable. There were some games where the coordination between
my fellow soldiers and I was so poor that we were completely annihilated
by the opposing team.

The shooting mechanics are good for the
most part, but do not feel as polished as Call of Duty. I frequently
found myself getting frustrated with unloading round after round at an
enemy only to find myself dying time after time. Not only that, but some
weapons feel underpowered and/or inconsistent. This was most commonly
the case with grenades. While the blast radius appears large I
frequently found myself not getting enemy kills when grenades would
explode right next to them. Other times I would kill enemies who
appeared outside the blast radius of a grenade.

Respawning is handled quite differently
from other games. In addition to spawning at fixed points on the map,
you can also spawn inside vehicles, which is one of the strangest
features I have ever seen. In the larger game modes youíll frequently
come across enemies who spawn camp and drop you within a few seconds of
spawning. Other times you can spawn by parachuting into the map, which
has its drawbacks as you are sitting ducks for close enemies who are
close by.

The gameís rank up system is quite similar
to Modern Warfare 2ís. During each match you gain experience points for
performing tasks ranging from killing enemies to healing teammates.
These points contribute to you leveling up and earning points which you
can then spend on weapons, and weapon and character upgrades. At the
beginning of the game, only certain multiplayer match types are
available and you are required to attain a certain level to unlock
these. In addition to that you can only be a squad leader if you have
attained a certain ranking. One frustrating element of character
customization in MAG is that you have a set limit on what you can equip
your character with. I frequently found myself having to change my
load-out to accommodate the gameís load-out limit.

You are probably wondering how stable the
game is given that it was designed to support up to 256 players online.
Based on my experience with SOCOM, I was expecting lots of lag and
online glitches and bugs, but for the most part, the game is fairly
stable. I was only disconnected a few times and only once did I ever run
into a major bug online.

The game features a total of 9 maps. Maps
are mostly specific to the type of game mode you are playing. One of the
most frustrating elements of MAG is that rather than choosing which map
you would like to play, you simply join a queue and are forced to play
the map the game chooses. Quite frequently youíll play the same map 3 or
4 times in a row. Not only that, but quite often youíll be stuck playing
offense or defense most of the time, rather than having equal
opportunity on both sides.

The visuals in MAG are fairly weak.
Textures appear low-res and characters lack detail. This certainly is no
surprise since the game supports up to 256 players with audio chat.
Effects such as explosions donít appear as satisfying as they should be
and there are also some issues with the gameís framerate when the action
picks up. Thankfully, the gameplay makes up for the weak visuals.

MAG is a solid effort by Zipper
Interactive. It falls short in some areas, but proves to be an enjoyable
experience that offers something not previously seen in any other online
shooters for the Playstation 3. If youíre tired of standard shooters
such Modern Warfare 2, then you should definitely give MAG a try.